Black Victorians
Beyond the patrician vision of Victorian Britain traditionally advanced in our textbooks, there always existed another, more diverse Britain, populated by people of colour marking achievements both ordinary and extraordinary.
In this deeply researched and dynamic history, Woolf and Abraham reach into the archives to recentre our attention on marginalised Black Victorians, from leading medic George Rice to political agitator William Cuffay to abolitionists Henry ‘Box’ Brown and Sarah Parker Remond; from pre-Raphaelite muse Fanny Eaton to renowned composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. While acknowledging the paradoxes of Victorian views of race, Black Victorians demonstrates, with storytelling verve and a liberatory impulse, how Black people were visible and influential, firmly rooted in British life.
Book details
- Format
- Paperback
- ISBN
- 9780715654880
- Published
- 14 September 2023
- Pages
- 378
- Duration
- Dimensions
- 129 x 198 mm
- Genre
- History
- Imprint
- Duckworth
Reviews
‘The history of Black people in this country is woven into the tapestry that is the United Kingdom. Black Victorians shows us, in vivid detail, how Black people didn't just take part in the Victorian era, they shaped it’
‘Meatily researched and illuminating... [brings] to swaggering life a group of Britons who have spent too long in the shadows’ Susie
‘An important survey of the subject based on painstaking research. Woolf and Abraham's Black Victorians: Hidden in History provides an indispensable introduction to the subject told through the lives of some of the most eminent personalities of the era, as well as those hitherto little known. A significant contribution to the field’
'This book will generate discussion and change mindsets. It is brilliant’
‘The book's telling details are liberating for, in spite of the Black Victorians' subjection and degradation, they are presented not as victims, but rather as resourceful, inventive, assertive human beings in their quests for betterment. Their cumulative experiences are skilfully woven into an engaging, richly textured book – an insightful work of scholarship’
‘Fascinating, thorough, well-researched and extremely readable, Black Victorians provides invaluable insight into a history of Victorian Britain that is not often told’
‘Engaging, informative and accessible, Black Victorians shines a light on a little-known aspect of British history. It is written with passion and attention to detail. I highly recommend this book’
‘Revelatory. Exposing whitewashing, tackling archival obfuscation, and returning little known figures to history, this book restores colour to our vision of Victorian Britain’
'An important contribution to the history of Africans in Britain… Abraham and Woolf are truly to be applauded’
'Read this book and learn; it’s time to rewrite the narrative and redress the balance of the Black British presence in our histories… Extremely powerful’
